Photo provided by the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission.
Scudder Falls Bridge carrying I-95 over the Delaware River between Lower Makefield, Pa., and Ewing, N.J., will be undergoing major renovations in the near future.

LOWER MAKEFIELD – The board of supervisors has decided not to have to have the township conduct its own noise study relating to the impending $328-million Scudder Falls Bridge improvement project.

In November, the supervisors had discussed the concerns of residents in three areas on the southbound side of I-95 which will not be part of the bridge reconstruction project’s noise-abatement program. Under that program $7.5-million in sound barriers would be erected along the highway in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

The homeowners in those areas want the Delaware River Joint Toll Bridge Commission (DRJTBC), which is in charge of the project, to fill in the three gaps along I-95 in Lower Makefield where there would be no sound barriers, and had asked the township for help.

Township engineer Mark Eisold said that he recently reviewed the DRBTC’s noise-study and found that sound levels would not be higher than the minimum level required for sound barriers to be installed along the interstate.

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“Nothing jumped out of it that was a real issue,” he said.

Eisold said he contacted four engineering firms specializing in noise studies and that it would cost the township between $15,000 and $50,000 to conduct its own study.

Board chairman Pete Stainthorpe said that the DRTBC study “followed all the requirements.

“I don’t see us having to spend an extra $50,000 for a study,” he explained, noting that the township is already committed to building two new baseball fields and helping fund the ambulance squad.

Instead, Stainthorpe said that the township should continue to work with State Rep. Steve Santarsiero (D-31), who in 2008 pushed the bridge commission to add the sound barriers along the interstate leading up to the bridge as part of the reconstruction project.

The DRJTBC decided not to add sound walls to the three existing gaps because he Pennsylvania section of I-95 will be “widened to the inside” along the grassy center median so that the traffic lanes will not move any closer to the residences.

The project is set to begin in late 2014 or early 2015 and take three to four years to complete. The 4.4-mile improvement, which is aimed at cutting rush-hour congestion on the bridge, will extend from the Route 332 interchange (Newtown Bypass) to the Bear Tavern Road interchange in New Jersey (Exit 2).

The existing four-lane Delaware River bridge will be completely replaced by a six-lane structure (three lanes in each direction), along with two auxiliary northbound lanes and one auxiliary southbound lane for entry/exit of traffic.